James & Lily: The Long Road to Love
by philipwhiuk
Summary: A JPLE novel NovelLength  50,000 chartering the end of 7th year upto the death of Lily and James. HP:OOP used, some of HP:HBP used. I may also decide to employ 7th book stuff. We'll see. Have fun reading my first fiction.


**AN:** I own none of this story, just the plot. In the future I will add new characters, but the opening is created entirely from the normal stock of characters. I hope that you enjoy reading this fiction.

James sighed as he walked stiffly through the barrier joining Platform 9 and 3/4 with the outside world. His case mounted on a typical London Platform rack, with his tawny owl's cage perched on top, was being forced along by his left hand, easily overcoming the brake which was stubbornly attached to a front wheel. His right hand was moving in a familiar fashion to his untameable hair, which he had cut with his wand this morning, to the astonishment of his mate Sirius, who's own hair was threatening to move towards his neck, styled to the expectation of the Sirius fan club. However before the hand met his hair, he seemed to realise what his was doing and pulled it down to his trolley, slapping it irritated on bar he was pushing against.

The object of James' annoyance had yet to arrive on the platform, so James settled to looking for his other two friends, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. They had planned to be here early, so as to meet up and grab a compartment before it all became too much. However, James had a surprise in store for them which Sirius Black had been initially shocked at, to say the least. For, in James' pocket, least anyone notices before he planned to reveal it was a badge, gleaming from the time he had spent polishing it - his mind already planning ahead, was a Head Boy badge.

For Sirius, co-leader with James of the, in his eyes at least, most infamous pranking group yet to attend Hogwarts in all of it's decorated history, the legendary Marauders, the mere presence of a Head Boy at the school presented a target of almost unlimited opportunity. To have the Head Boy in the group, Sirius took as a personal insult (at least this was the impression James had received). At first he had hoped that James would utilise the badge as position of power to gain an edge against the students. However, James had pointedly told him this wasn't to be the case. Hence Sirius's bubbling anger.

Moony, or Lupin to outsiders, now strode along the platform, his trunk positioned in the centre of a trolley. Above it was another trunk which, it was clear from a gap in the zip of the bulging object contained nothing more harmful than textbooks.

"James, I see you have tamed the mane then," Remus said, his humour at James' attempt evident.

Sirius laughed, before Remus gave him a pointed look,

"Unlike our friend here who hasn't done anything at all." he continued, chuckling.

This time it was James' turn to laugh, before Sirius replied, his voice edging with annoyance:

"This is to draw the eyes of Cecilia. And anyway, at least I can be rebellious unlike our friend Mr Potter"

"Cecilia?" answered Remus, "I thought it was Henrietta. Or have you been dating around?"

"Just making sure that everyone get's to sample the real Sirius in the full" replied Sirius, his voice bulging with confidence, "Anyway, we three need to get a cabin," he said, motioning towards himself, Remus and the small boy who had just arrived, his trolley a mismatch of bags, which were threatening to topple over.

"Hello Peter," Remus said politely, before moving to question Sirius's response, "Three people? Why, James is here... Or have you left him out on purpose."

James whose eyes had scanned the platform, as if searching for something or someone chose this moment to reply, cutting off Sirius's jutting remark before it had even begun:

"Sirius has left me out on purpose but it is not for anything you might expect. I haven't for example, totally whitewashed him in Wizard's Chess this holiday - indeed his game has me stumped at times... The reason is instead that, in a moment of madness, I have been chosen, much to mine and Sirius' surprise to be Head Boy this year". Seeing Remus's dropped jaw he finished:

"I did ask whether they meant to put your name on instead of mine, but they said that it was deliberate."

"So, as a result now he will be near Evans for more than personal reasons, and he want's to 'act mature' " Sirius finished, his dark eye's twinkling, and rolling his eyes with the last few words.

"This means no pranks!?" questioned Remus, his voice seeming surprised.

"No just more responsible and humorous, less malicious." James responded quickly, his left hand gripping his wand in his pocket.

"In other words, less fun" mopped Sirius, his voice sounding downcast, pushing his trolley away.

"I didn't say that, just that it has too look more humorous to everyone else..." James called, his eyes rolling.

Threading his way to the head's carriage he decided was like an intricate dance, swirling around students gossiping, talking or moving in all directions. The busy platform was full of noise, parents shouting, girl's squealing, boy's bellowing, owls hooting and toad's feeble croaking. Below this a buzz of chatter surrounded the Hogwarts' train on both sides.

In the head's compartment was a peaceful calm atmosphere, devoid of anyone but James. Once he had shut the windows and doors to avoid questions from kids wondering how the infamous prankster got the top job, he shoved his case on the shelf above his head, pulled out Charms for NEWT students, Vol. 2. and began to loose himself in the subject he was least good at, in order to gain some sort of advantage so he wouldn't fall to pieces among his classmates and more importantly... Evans.

The name meant a great deal to him. It stood in place of hours of arguing, desperate tactics, fruitless pranking and a deep-down longing that he found he was unable to ignore. It was this girl who he expected to arrive at the Head's compartment in a few minutes time, her flaming hair streaming behind her as it always did in the slightest wind. Then the peaceful silence would disappear he knew.

The train was scheduled to leave at 11am. James was getting kind of worried now. It was three minutes to 11 and the notorious Evans was yet to appear. It was not until 2 minutes to 11 that she burst through the barrier, her hair almost on fire behind her as she raced towards the Express. James pushed open the door from the inside, shot a spell at her luggage causing it to shrink, _accio_ed it into the train and the grabbed her arm, pulling her on-board as the train began to leave the station.

Lily took a minute to catch her breath. During this time, James, expelling a breath, expanded her luggage for her and heaved it onto the rack above her head. It was at this point, when he was leaning over her, that she muttered a soft:

"Thanks".

Realising this was all he was going to get, he sat down on his seat again, placed his treasured wand back into his robe and went back to his Charm's book, glad that he had just read the section on the theory of shrinking multi-part objects..

The Head Girl meanwhile was adjusting her robe which was splayed around her as she tried to think of why Potter was in the Head's compartment. Finally she decided to ask:

"Potter"

"Yes Lily?" he replied shortly.

"Lily?" she replied, leaving her initial question for the moment

"Sorry. I assumed we could be on a first-name basis, seeing as I expect that, as fellow-Heads we will be expected to patrol together. Forget I said it," James thought, annoyed with himself over his forwardness.

"Forget it I certainly won't. However, enough of this lark. How the heck did you get in here? This is a head's only cabin. You need a badge to be in here."

Wordlessly, aware of what was about to happen, and powerless to prevent it, he pulled out the shiny badge from his pocket, the letters 'HB' glistening on it in gold lettering.

"Oh, so I suppose you borrowed that from Remus." she cut back swiftly.

Sighing inwardly, his shoulder's dropping; he opened the back of stuff that he had next to him, fumbled inside it for a moment before pulling out an envelope, which was ruffled, slit roughly across the top and slightly grubby. He passed it across to her. She snatched it gruffly, eyes blazing across the parchment.

"As you can see, my mother was as surprised as you, if not slightly more pleased. The response she gave and the reply that McGonagall gave is on the back.

Some of the fire went out of Lily's emerald eyes as she turned the parchment over. James got slightly apprehensive at this point. Generally this was the point at which...

"Damn you Potter. I expected a good last year at Hogwarts. How the hell did you manage to get this job, eh? I've worked my hardest over the last 6 years and never received so much as mark for late homework. You or Black holds the record for the most detentions in every conceivable time period going. You haven't even been a prefect for hell's sake. I won't have you ruin this final year for me. You step a foot out of line and I will ensure you pay for it" she nearly screamed, her tone rocketing round the compartment.

In the deafening silence that followed, James heard laughter from further down the train at the word's Lily had roared. Mentally cursing them, he slowly responded to her tirade, somewhat taken aback by her outburst.

"I know that you expect me to mess this up for you, so I'm not sure how much you believe of this. I just want you to know that the last thing I intend to do is mess this year up for you. I understand that you take the position very seriously and will ensure that I do my best to match your obvious enthusiasm for the job. As for my record, I'm not allowed to mention the incident to which I believe Dumbledore's trust in my sense of responsibility and maturity comes from but suffice it to say that it was significant. I've thought about this year a lot Evans... I was going to just chuck the badge when I thought it through, knowing that you'd be Head Girl, given our… history. But I decided that somebody at Hogwarts clearly thought I could do a good job of this and I didn't want them to let them down."

Tired from the journey it'd taken to get this far as well as from the whole affair between them in general, he fell back into his seat, grabbing a quill and parchment. Thinking hard he began to scribble on it.

Our resident Head Girl meanwhile was surprised by the fact that he didn't shout at her, by the thought he had put into his response at least - even if it was bluff. Frustrated with the situation she found herself in, she rummaged through her bag then groaned despondently.

"What's wrong?" James said, his voice showing concern mixed with concentration on the parchment.

"I've forgotten my Transfiguration book. I was planning to look over it before the term and I'll need it for sessions as well. I need a good mark and I'm really rubbish at the whole thing..." she replied annoyed.

He stood up, glasses asked, opened his tightly packed case and pulled a battered copy of 'Transfiguration: N.E.W.Ts" out of it, before, turning, then chucking it on the seat next to her.

"You can borrow mine, for the journey as well as until you get it sent to you. 'm sure Alice will let you borrow hers as well. However we need to lecture the Prefect's now. If you could outline the actual schedule as you know the ropes that would be great," he proposed.

"Darn, I had totally forgotten that!" she exclaimed, pulling on her flowing black robes over her trainers. A small rip was to be heard as her trainer's caught the hem of the back.

"Reparo" barked James swiftly, before Lily could utter so much as a groan. Having already changed while waiting for her to arrive on the train, he picked up the parchment he had scribbled a few notes on, before holding the door open for her to the prefects.

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"Prefects!" James shouted amidst the excited din that surrounded Lily and James as they entered the compartment. The silence that followed was sudden, as they recognised the two Heads, before whispering, presumably about the row. James stepped forwards, quickly preparing himself mentally:

"Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. To those of you that are new to the Prefect system, you are to be part of an important system which enforces discipline around the place. It is your job to dock points from those who break the rules. When doing this you must be harsh but fair. Do not consider anyone above your jurisdiction, including students older than you."

Nervous Lily continued, producing a hastily written schedule from her shoulder bag:

"This rota, details the patrol times for each prefect until the October break. It is your job to attend each patrol at the time, or to arrange a cover person if you are unavailable. If you wish to re-arrange a slot with another student for an extended period, see me and I can update the timetable. The charm on the parchment means that when I update mine, your's will go warm temporarily and update as well. Are their any questions?"

Several hands shot up. James who had a certain sense of foreboding picked a random hand near the middle.

"Can we really expect you to punish your rule-breaking friends as harshly as other's might wish." the boy spoke, his voice hard.

"You should be able to expect us two as Heads to be as harsh on anyone as anyone else. However if you see us not punishing someone harshly enough, you are more than welcome to discuss it with the other Head, or a teacher." James replied evenly, noticing the smile from Remus at the back.

After that there were no more questions so James and Lily dispersed the group, each with a copy of the schedule before returning to their cabin.

Once the door had shut, Lily dropped her schedule on her seat, cautiously picked up the Transfiguration text-book and immediately noted something:

"You've defaced this book Potter."

"No, I've made notes on the spells."

"What do you mean, you've made notes. These are 7th year spells. Nobody has even touched these yet." she responded shortly.

"Given that I was clearly ahead in Transfiguration, McGonagall suggested I look at some of the spells over the break. It kept my mind off my result in Charms at any rate. The notes are observations I made as to how to approach each spell. You can just ignore it if you like." he returned.

At this he took out his Charm's book again, his face screwed up in concentration, trying to grasp the intricacies of a particularly difficult spell.

By the time the lunch trolley arrived it was virtually empty. James suspected that Sirius was to blame for some of this. Grabbing a few coins out of his wallet he asked for the single remaining Pumpkin Pasty at the same time as Lily. Immediately he retracted it, letting Lily take the item, then asked for a large bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

Soon, munching on their snacks from the trolley the train wound its way to Hogwarts. When it finally stopped in Hogsmeade - a small village which was well known as the only entirely wizard and witch inhabited location in Britain, Lily yawned, grabbed her hand luggage, leaving her case and stepped off the train. James picked up his hand luggage and case, thought about leaving Lily's case on the train, before lifting it up as well, then dragging both cases towards a carriage. It seemed that the Marauders had found a girl to fit in theirs - Sirius's doing he realised. So he walked to the back of the line to see a carriage on its own, dragged by a Thestral which was pawing the ground awkwardly.

Yes, James could see the creature. Since he had seen his dad die at the Ministry this summer on Auror duties, he had spent more time pondering his future and trying to concentrate about the more important parts of his life.

Anyway he thought, enough of that, focus on getting to Hogwarts for now. He dragged his and Lily's suitcases onto the carriage shut the door and the Thestral began the journey to Hogwarts.

Now alone in the he cabin he sighed to himself about the morning, his back slumped dejectedly against the leather of the cabin as he waited to arrive.

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It was not until she arrived at Hogwarts that Lily, seeing everyone else with their luggage in tow, began to panic. Immediately she ran back to the carriage, dived in it and checked under her seat. Then she realised where it must be. James found her soon after this, his back aching from pulling two heavy bags behind him. When he dropped it at her side, she immediately went on the offensive:

"What the hell do you think you are doing, taking my trunk with you? Just as I thought you might be growing up, you have to pull this cruel trick on me."

Potter simply turned his back, feeling he should have left it on the train and trudged to Professor Flitwick who was in the Entrance Hall. Once he had gathered himself he spoke calmly:

"Professor, the letter mentioned a Head's Dormitory..."

"Yes Potter, third staircase on the right, past the Gryphons. I'd have thought you'd have read the letter - or known anyway, given your exploits" Flitwick interrupted him tiredly.

"It's not that Sir, it's just that I was wondering whether it might be possible to not use it, given Evans obvious anger at me." he replied somewhat dispirited.

"No, I'm afraid that you two will have to sort it out between the two of you. Dumbledore was clear on that." he replied inwardly chuckling.

Annoyed, James picked up his suitcase and heaved it towards the Head's Dormitory.

Once there he found a Knight who said majestically "The red-headed girl has just clambered through. Password is Hippogriff. Be warned, she's not in the best of moods."

James sighed, clambered through the portrait-hole, blinked at the little lounge before him and then pulled his trunk into his room, before turning to go back to the feast.

The chatter in the Hall masked his arrival and he quickly moved to the empty seat next to Remus,

"Finally Prongs, we thought Lily had left you for dead in the Dorm's for a minute then." started Lupin.

"Not quite, he began, before re-telling his horrific journey to the castle, skipping out her lectures.

By the end of it his friends were looking angrily down the table towards Lily, however James finished off saying "Don't go on at her about it. The last thing I need is for her to have a reason to be mad at me."

"So you're just going to let her blame you for her mistakes" said Sirius disbelievingly.

"Better that than loose her. This is my final year and I'm not going to let her go." James replied shortly.

"Desperate" muttered Sirius as the plates cleared magically signalling the end of the feast.

At the front of the Great Hall, as per usual, Albus Dumbledore stood up. He waved his wand once and then spoke in a loud voice:

"I have a few start of term notices to give to you.

First years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. A few of our older pupils" - here he paused, eyes flashing at the Marauders, Sirius did a half-bow to the applause of some - "would do better if they remembered this. Mr Pringle has asked all pupils to ensure they don't do magic in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Captains should see Mrs Hooch to arrange a trials date, and pupils who wish to play should also see her."

At this he finished, leaving the prefects to escort the students to their House dormitories, James left his seat then turned to leave…

"Miss Evans and Mr Potter please come with me" Professor McGonagall said sharply her voice easily reaching James and Lily. Reluctantly they left their friends and followed Prof. McGonagall to her office.

"I don't normally have to say this, but given the background between the two of you I felt it necessary to say that I expect the two of you to act united in the positions you have been appointed to. Your Head's Common Room will be a key part of this. Hopefully I don't need to remind either of you of the dangerous situation we find ourselves in now-a-days. Potter, a word about the Quidditch Team if you may, Evans you are free to go."

Lily left the office quickly, her hand clutching a Ginger Newt she was chewing quietly. Inside the office Potter remained, his mind confused - the Quidditch Team was a fairly done matter.

"Potter, you may be wondering what the problem the Quidditch Team has. In simple terms, it doesn't have one! Your management has been exemplary, hence our outstanding performance last year."

By this point James was really befuddled. Why had his Head of House asked to speak about the team if it was fine? If he didn't respect his Head as much he'd swear she was losing her marbles...

"The reason I said Quidditch was to give a reason for talking to you alone, as an explanation to Miss Evans. Although it may not look like it occasionally, I am aware of your issues together. I campaigned against the other teacher's for you to be Head Boy, despite the number of times you have shown disregard for the rules. It is my hope that you will do your best to get on with Evans - give her a bit of space, etc. That was all Potter." she instructed him, her green eyes twinkling.

By the time James had returned to the Head's Common Room - his thoughts trying to keep up with what McGonagall had said, Lily had already disappeared up to her room. Part of him was glad of this, he hadn't been looking forward to another argument before bed, but another part however said that it showed the separation between the two of them. He sat next to the fire as its flames danced over the charred wood, reading the remainder of the chapter on Charms he had started, mind wandering to the girl behind the door he was facing.


End file.
